As application development projects are growing larger, tracing is becoming increasingly important. Tracing can be a very useful tool used primarily by software developers to isolate problems, for example, by tracking execution of program code. For example, when developing an application, developers trace the execution of methods or functions within certain modules to identify problems and/or to determine if the program code may be improved. If a particular method takes an inordinate amount of time to complete, the developer may determine the reasons why and/or change the program code to operate more efficiently.
Trace tools are proprietary application programs which use different techniques to trace the execution flows for an executing program. One technique, referred to as event-based profiling, tracks particular sequences of instructions by recording application-generated events as they occur. By way of example, a trace tool may record each entry into, and each exit from, a module, subroutine, function, method, or system component within a trace file (e.g., a time-stamped entry may be recorded within the trace file for each such event). Trace events may also be sent to a console or other output destination.
Conventional trace tools, however, are limited with tracing data from various systems, i.e., when dealing with tracing data of various structures. For example, conventional trace tools do not provide for integration of various trace files of different structures relating to different corresponding systems. This often leads to, at best, delay in reading of errors as the data has to be manually read and, at worst, misreading of errors or even loss of trace data. Tracing is particularly cumbersome when a development project involves a great number of systems, applications, components, modules, developers, and/or multiple interfaces and services. Furthermore, conventional trace tools are limited in the way they display tracing information.